Let's talk about... the 2000 Guineas - Our racing team with their favourite winners of the great race

What are your favourite memories of the 2000 Guineas? Share your thoughts with us via racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and they will appear at the foot of the article.

Richard Mann - Dawn Approach, 2013

Maybe it’s an age thing, a sign that I’m getting older than I’d like, but, as the years pass, I find myself more drawn to substance over style, preferring solid to sexy.

I’m strictly referring to racehorses here, I may add.

Growing up it was Hawk Wing, One Cool Cat, George Washington, Delegator and Top Offer, I’m ashamed to admit. Those were the horses to get my juices flowing ahead of the new Flat season. Exciting horses with flash profiles but ‘Gorgeous George’ apart, all suffered defeat in the 2000 Guineas.

Nowadays, I usually prefer a much safer ride. A reliable Volkswagen Polo over a sports car; practicality over prestige, substance over style. It’s the same with horses.

Take the last five winners of the 2000 Guineas: Gleneagles; Galileo Gold; Churchill; Saxon Warrior; Magna Grecia. All strong stayers at a mile but they would have never had connections dreaming of an audacious tilt at the July Cup.

This was also the case in 2013 when Jim Bolger’s Champion Two-Year-Old, Dawn Approach, arrived at Newmarket bidding to follow in the footsteps of his father, New Approach, and stretch his impressive unbeaten record to seven.

There really should have been no knocking Dawn Approach. A Royal Ascot winner who ended the previous season picking up a pair of comfortable Group One victories in the National Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes, he really was bombproof.

Nevertheless, Dawn Approach wasn’t the sort of horse to set your pulse racing; he was a grinder who needed plenty of stoking up in his races. A galloper, not a quickener, he was never all that sassy.

But he was good, very good, and he confirmed it with a deeply authoritative five-length triumph on the Rowley Mile that proved him, beyond doubt, the best three-year-old colt both sides of the Irish Sea.

Not that we should ever have doubted it but on the morning of the race, Dawn Approach, despite his flawless record, was in danger of not going off favourite as the money poured in for Toronado after he had turned heads with his silky Craven Stakes success a few weeks earlier.

As Richard Hughes gushed to the media that Toronado might prove to be the best he’d ever ridden, style was winning over substance but the Irish knew, Jim Bolger certainly knew, and strong, late support for Dawn Approach ensured he was sent off the 11/8 market leader.

In the race itself, the ‘big two’ travelled side by side in the early exchanges as they sat prominently, tracking the pace, but when locking horns two furlongs from home, the strong-travelling Toronado was simply blown away by Dawn Approach who asserted once meeting the rising ground and powered clear in the closing stages. So much substance.

The step up to 1m4f in the Derby a month later turned out to be a disaster for Bolger’s charge but returned to a mile at Royal Ascot only 17 days later, he again lowered the colours of Toronado – albeit with much less in hand this time – before his old foe finally gained some revenge when turning the tables at Glorious Goodwood.

Dawn Approach wasn’t the same horse in two starts thereafter but when it mattered most, with a Classic on the line, he was solid and reliable, brave and brilliant, and very, very good.

David Ord - El Gran Senor, 1984

Even at the age of 11 I knew it was something special. El Gran Senor visibly quickened twice to win the 2000 Guineas. I'd never seen that before - and very rarely since.

There was always a mystical quality about a colt trained by Vincent O'Brien and carrying the silks of Robert Sangster. This one was a throwback to a golden era, even on pedigree. A gorgeous son of Northern Dancer and a full-brother to Try My Best. It didn't get any better.

He arrived at Newmarket off the back of a brilliant and unbeaten juvenile campaign which brought him victories in the Railway Stakes, National Stakes and Dewhurst.

But it was the Guineas I'll remember. Not the Derby, for all the agnonising defeat at the hooves of Secreto has found its way into Epsom folklore.

It's Newmarket and the smooth way he went through a stellar renewal of the first colt's Classic. There's a brief moment - when Chief Singer starts to sprint on the rail - that you just wondered if another bubble was to be burst before spring was in full bloom.

But then it came - the second surge of acceleration that carried him clear of his flying rival and had even Pat Eddery reaching down to pat him in admiration before the finishing post.

And then you look at what he beat.

The runner-up won the St James's Palace, July Cup and Sussex Stakes. Lear Fan landed the Prix Jacques le Marois and Rainbow Quest a Coronation Cup and Arc.

He was a cut above the very best that day at Newmarket and it's a memory that will never fade.

Mike Vince - Refuse To Bend, 2003

Refuse To Bend’s 2003 Guineas win is one I’ll always remember as to me it gave the British racing public, and the wider world, the clearest proof that in the little known, at that time, Pat Smullen, trainer Dermot Weld had a world-class stable jockey.

By the time he arrived on the Rowley Mile Refuse To Bend had won the National Stakes and Smullen had ridden Vinnie Roe to two of his wins in the Irish St Leger.

But this was to be his first British Classic.

The Moyglare Stud-owned colt was sent off 9/2 second favourite behind Hold That Tiger, who beat not much more than the ambulance home, and the jockey bided his time as the huge field were led by Saturn in the Highclere silks.

A furlong and a half out Smullen, in the ideal position, made his move. Hitting the front a furlong from home, Refuse To Bend was never in danger of defeat. Yes he was chased home by two outsiders - Steve Drowne on 33/1 shot Zafeen was second and the even bigger priced Norse Dancer third - but this was a class performance.

Quite simply Pat Smullen had got his tactics spot on. Refuse To Bend went on to Epsom where he started favourite for the Derby but patently failed to stay.

However, the memory of that power thrust at Newmarket still remains. We did not know much about Smullen as he went to post that day.

We, thankfully, know a lot more now.

Send us your views

Send in your favourite 2000 Guineas winners and other contributions to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com while if you’ve any ideas for more topics you want covering over the coming days and weeks, please let us know.

Feedback from readers

Andrew Pelis: I am in agreement with Dave Ord, El Gran Senor's 1984 triumph heralded a golden year for flat racing. I had seen Rainbow Quest win on debut and had followed his subsequent career - and the 1983 crop of juveniles appeared to be deep in talent, with several potential superstars from all the big yards.

All winter I could not wait for the Guineas and when it came, it did not disappoint, as El Gran Senor demonstrated his class against a small but brilliant field. But whilst this is my favourite renewal, visually the most iconic races were Frankel's and Zafonic's - two distinctly different wins in their making.

The latter had won what on paper had looked to be a strong Dewhurst, with an extraordinary turn of foot, the previous October. However, his 1993 return saw him turned over by Kingmambo, in a shock, in the Prix Djebel.

Redemption was at hand on a stormy afternoon on the Rowley Mile, as Pat Eddery sat out the back, as the thunder and lightning crashed around the runners.

Pat moved Zafonic to the outside and he smoothly passed his field as if he had extra gears. It was incredible to watch as Zafonic hit the front and quickly pulled clear. Barathea, a future Breeders' Cup Mile winner, gave chase in vain, as Andre Fabre's superstar powered home.

Dave Parker: Sir Ivor 1968 mainly due to Lester Piggott saying he was the best horse he ever rode and that was after he rode Nijinsky. Apparently he said this after retiring, it is some accolade when you think Nijinsky completed the Triple Crown. How good was Sir Ivor ? It makes me wonder. The most exciting 2000 Guineas obviously had to be Frankel just unbelievable, I think it was Nick Luck who summed it up that Frankel made Group one horses look like selling platers. Absolutely unbelievable!!!!

Tony Harbour - Having not backed a winner of the 2000 Guineas since Bucks Fizz were 'Making their minds Up' !!!!.....i'm going back to 1993 and the utterly surperb victory of ZAFONIC. A brilliant 2yo, he was defeated at long odds on in the Prix Djebel by Kingmambo. On Guineas day he delivered well and truly under the very much missed Pat Eddery defeating a very good horse in Barathea. Sadly the horse broke a blood vessel in the Sussex and didn't run again. But on Guineas day he was magnificent.

Martyn Weston - King’s Best in 2000 has always been an underrated winning performance in my book. The race more replicated the Hunt Cup than a classic, with over 20+ horses in the race. King’s Best was held up last of the field early on with a wall of horses in front of it. The pace also didn’t look that strong, it then got trouble in running and Fallon had to engineer a way through horses until about 2f from home. King’s Best then looked like the proverbial hot knife through butter as it picked up the pace setters to go on and easily win by about 5 lengths. The horse was flawless this day and never seems to be held in the regard that this performance deserved.

Tim Williams - I was sixteen in 1970 when I saw what must be indisputably the greatest Guineas of all time. The horses involved, Brigadier Gerrard, Mill Reef, My Swallow, Minsky. The trainers, Major Hern, Paul Davey, Ian Balding, Vincent O'Brien, Ryan Price. The jockeys Joe Mercer, Geoff Lewis, Lester Piggott. That's what I call a race line-up.

Dave Youngman - Thoughts of the 2,000 Guineas for me go back to 1967, I was a youngster back in those days and a member of the Noel Murless Warren Place yard. ROYAL PALACE owned by Jim Joel was trained to perfection by the Boss and how well Australian jockey George Moore rode him to win the race that day, the same combination went on to win the Epsom Derby for us and all but for injury he most likely would have won the St Leger and landed the Triple Crown for us. George Moore only rode for the stable for that one season before Sandy Barclay took over the reigns on the Warren Place horses but the Australian pilot was wonderful. It should have been our Guineas weekend here at Newmarket but never mind we can't help it, all will come right in the end and we will be racing again. This morning here at Newmarket trainer John Gosden had three as yet unraced colts working nicely in DARAIN, NASRAAWY and TAQAREER. Darain is a full brother to Too Darn Hot and is starting to shape up nicely.

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